Post by Keyser Soze on Sept 20, 2023 19:12:20 GMT -6
Who's Hot
The hottest team in the league and the winners of 10 straight (longest active streak in the league) are the Los Angeles Lakers. They're defending their homecourt with a perfect 8-0 record at the Staples center. They've also won their last 5 games on the road. They're taking care of the layup games (Memphis, Detroit, San Antonio). While also beating the upper echelon teams like Washington, Seattle, and the Sacramento Kings. No matter the opponents the Lakers have been smacking them down 1 by 1. They did have a little trouble in win #10 of the streak vs Philly, when the 76ers nearly came back from 18 down in the 4th quarter. Lakers were able to squeak by with a 99-97 victory. Zach Lavine was the games high scorer with 27 points. Jamaal Wilkes added 16. While Dave Bing dished out 9 assists against zero turnovers. These 3 players have been the focal points of their success. Starting with Lavine, who is #2 in the league with 33.1 PPG. No man not named LaMelo has ever reached the 33 PPG plateau in league history. I see him continuing to have an all league 1st Team caliber season. While his backcourt mate Bing has done pretty well for a 21 year old that can finally legally drink. Bing will probably never be Damon Stoudamire, the man he replaced at PG. However he's poised, patient, and tremendously efficient. He has a 8.7 APG/2.1 TPG rate, to go with his 50.3/78.4/43.3 shooting splits. He still gotta work on that B- defense. But offensively the early returns on Bing are Cha-Ching. Speaking of offense, this brings us to Jamaal Wilkes, who has been instant offense off that Lakers bench. Despite being the teams 6th man he's 2nd on the Lakers in scoring (16.6 PPG). Wilkes has been a 20 PPG scorer and all-star during his career. This year's he's been asked to sacrifice and take on a lesser role. So far he's making the most of it. Lavine, Bing, Wilkes, Chris Webber, Artis Gilmore, Karl Anthony Towns excelling at his new SF position. There's been alot of bright spots for the 14-4 Lakers. But there is one negative. We'll get to it a little later in the article.
Who's Not
There's more than just 1 negative when it comes to the Detroit Pistons. More like 89. That's the amount of points they're averaging this season. 89.4 to be exact which is the worst offense in basketball. I know the Pistons are supposed to be known for defense. That's where the "Deeeeee" from Deeeeee-troit Basketball comes from. And they are staying true to that identity with the #4 rated scoring defense in the league (98.9 oPPG). BUT you gotta be able to put the ball in the basket. Otherwise you're gonna lose alot of games. Which is exactly what the Pistons have been doing this season (3-12 record). They actually started the year 3-2, but since then they have lost 10 games in a row. You know how many times they scored 100 pts in those 10 games? ZERO. Three times they were held below 80 points. Most recently a 108-78 loss vs Philadelphia. They shot 34.8 % from the field and 8.3 % from Three Point Land. Aaron Gordon was 6/21 in that game. Had almost as many fouls (5) as field goal makes (6). It's strange to see them struggle so much on offense, because there is talent. Kevin Garnett was #2 overall pick in the first ever league draft. He went ahead of Moses, Dr J, Larry K, etc. You know what he's doing this season? He's averaging 16 PPG on 37.6 % from the field. No wonder why the Pistons are dead last in offensive field goal percentage (40.7). Their best player is a shooting a sorry-ass 37 %. The previously mentioned A.Gordon isn't much better (41.5). Starting SG Jr Rider is chucking his way to a 41.3 percentage. While former #3 pick Stephon Marbury is looking pretty lackluster. Especially in comparison to the other two guys that went in the top 3 in his draft class (Kobe Bryant, Allen Iverson). I think there was hope Starbury would ignite the teams offense from the PG position. Be that young explosive fast lead guard that would get the Pistons in transition scoring more buckets. But that has not manifested. Instead things have gotten progressively worse in Detroit. And now it looks like they have officially hit rock bottom.
Injury Report
Caldwell Jones (105) - Lakers backup Center Caldwell Jones suffered a gruesome looking injury in the previos sim. He has since missed the last 5 games. Now its officially announced Jones has a torn ACL. He's currently listed as out for 105 days. There are 92 days left in the regular season. Meaning he would be able to return for the 2nd round of the playoffs. But that's a long time away. In the meantime it's Myles Turner's turn. His role will now dramatically increase as the first big man off the bench. He played pretty well in that 99-97 Philly win. With 10 points 12 rebounds 5 blocks. The question is can he do this consistently? Can he be a reliable 25+ MPG player? If not, the Lakers are going have to check who's avaliable on the trade market.
Joe Harris (52) - A bulging disc in Joeys back will keep him out 52 days. It's a tough break for him. He was playing his highest MPG rate (16.4 MPG) since his rookie season. Getting a chance to shine as a bench shooter. He was shooting 47.1 % from threes. Rodney Hood will replace Harris in the Utah Jazz 10 man rotation.
Kim Hughes (39) - The Knicks have been without their top defender since game #4 of the season. He's now missed 18 consecutive games. And he will be out an additional 2 months. Early season trade acquisition Sam Lacey has been playing in his place.
Lonnie Shelton (34) - After a rough 05 season in Philly, Lonnie has been attempting to revive his career in Memphis the last 2 years. That's gonna be hard to do with a broken skull. He's gonna be out 34 days. Prior to the injury be waa averaging 9.0 PPG.
Johnny Davis (18) - Johnny has fallen out of favor in Washington with the new proxy regime. 2 years ago he was a 27 MPG player. This year he's played 21 minutes total for the whole season. So his injury won't hurt Washington. But the broken jaw he suffered will hurt Johnny.
Kevin Duckworth (11) - More good news for the Pistons. Their first round pick Kevin Duckworth is out 11 days with a broken collarbone. In 15.9 MPG he was 2.4 PPG and 5.1 RPG.
Al Skinner (11) - Skinner is out 11 days with broken ribs. He suffered the injury in the last game vs LA. Tyrese Maxey tookover for him and had a nice all around game (8 points, 7 rebounds, 7 assists). Maxey is a battle tested ITP Finals starting PG. But losing Skinner is tough for a team that has already lost 5 of their last 6 games. And now have to play 9 games in 11 days. All without Skinner.
Antonio McDyess (10) - The San Antonio Spurs have been a surprisingly competitive little squad this year. They just beat the Knicks. They had a blowout victory vs the Phoenix Suns. One of the guys responsible for that success is Antonio McDyess (17.9 PPG 11.3 RPG). Dyce has already missed the last 9 games with a dislocated knee injury. He's expected to be out another 10 days.
More News Around The League
- Dyce is one of the reasons the Spurs are playing solid ball. But the MAIN reason is Rex Walters. Rex is averaging 26.0 PPG on 49.2/91.2/39.7 shooting splits. A 26 PPG 50/90/40 that's only making 10mil per for the next 4 years? The Spurs got a pretty sweet asset in Rex. In his last 2 games he dropped 41 in that upset victory vs NYK. Then came back the very next day with another 38 pts (16-22 FG) vs Portland. However, The Blazers won in a 134-124 shootout.
- Shootouts have been the story of the Blazers season. They're #3 in the league in scoring (114.5 PPG). And they have all kinds of firepower with Maledon and Smart on the perimeter. Rasheed And Julius Randle on the interior. They got weapons. Unfortunately, those weapons have been firing blanks the last 2 games. They have suffered nearly a 40 PPG dropoff by averaging 77.0 PPG in back to back losses to the Nets and Clippers.
- To be fair the Nets are #3 in ITP in scoring defense (98.8). While the Clippers are 8th (102.2). Clippers are playing some solid defense this year. Even with the loss of Bill Willoughby. But speaking of Bill, they're gonna need a little more consistent production from the player they acquired for Bill. I'm talking about Anthony Edwards. The antman is averaging 21.4 PPG but on just 43.1 % shooting and 30.4 % from downtown. The SG position in Sacramento was taken over by Kobe. So now Ant is in LA with an opportunity for a fresh start. With an opportunity to become the superstar he was drafted to be. It can still happen. He's only 25 years old. But he gotta start playing better than this.
- You know who else gotta start playing better? Nikola Jokic. I mean isn't it time already? You were drafted #1 overall 5 years ago. You were given a damn near max contract. Kevin Kunnert and Joe Meriweather are gone. It's your time to step up Nikola. And by step up I don't mean 10 PPG and 3 TPG on 41.5 FG/22.7 3PT shooting. You're better than that. And Penny needs you to be better. Both of them.
- As for Penny, he's playing a whole lot better than Jokic. Mr Hardaway has upped his scoring average to 29.0 PPG. See Nikola? That's how you respond after signing a big off-season contract extension. In addition to his increase in his scoring. His efficiency is way up (last year: 43.2 %, this year: 47.3 %). Hes getting to the free throw 6+ times per game after only averaging just over 4 FTA/gm last year. It's beautiful to see a healthy Penny blossom in his prime. Something we didn't get a chance to see enough of in real life due to injury.
- Another thing we didn't get to see enough of in real life was Drazen Petrovic. But in this league he's quickly becoming the man. He's averaging 21.0 PPG 5.2 RPG 4.0 APG on 49.2/84.2/50.0 shooting splits. And he was just named the league's rookie of the month. He keeps playing like this he's gonna be rookie of the year.
- Hal Greer will most likely not win rookie of the year. Greer, a top 5 pick like Petrovic, but unlike Petrovic he has struggled to get on the court for Minnesota. The 18 year old Greer has appeared in 7 of the Wolves 23 games this season logging 9.3 MPG and 3.3 PPG. Maybe his minutes will increase as the Wolves continue to trade off their veteran players.
- One vet they just traded away was John Shumate (22.0 PPG 10.6 RPG), who was sent to Washington in exchange for matching contracts, a future first round pick, and 2nd year man Josh Howard, who was a lottery pick last season. Howard is an intriguing inside/outside scoring project. But it has yet to fully come together for him on the ITP level. Will Minnesota be able to maximize his talents?
- From the Wizards perspective it was an interesting decision to move on from Howard. But they do have two equally good prospects at the wing postions in Rick Paulding (10.8 PPG 5.3 RPG) and Willie Naulls (14.9 MPG 6.7 PPG 3.0 RPG). Looks like they're focused on development of these two. Which is why Howard is gone.
- Speaking of gone. Im gone. Thank you for reading and I'll see you again tommorow.
The hottest team in the league and the winners of 10 straight (longest active streak in the league) are the Los Angeles Lakers. They're defending their homecourt with a perfect 8-0 record at the Staples center. They've also won their last 5 games on the road. They're taking care of the layup games (Memphis, Detroit, San Antonio). While also beating the upper echelon teams like Washington, Seattle, and the Sacramento Kings. No matter the opponents the Lakers have been smacking them down 1 by 1. They did have a little trouble in win #10 of the streak vs Philly, when the 76ers nearly came back from 18 down in the 4th quarter. Lakers were able to squeak by with a 99-97 victory. Zach Lavine was the games high scorer with 27 points. Jamaal Wilkes added 16. While Dave Bing dished out 9 assists against zero turnovers. These 3 players have been the focal points of their success. Starting with Lavine, who is #2 in the league with 33.1 PPG. No man not named LaMelo has ever reached the 33 PPG plateau in league history. I see him continuing to have an all league 1st Team caliber season. While his backcourt mate Bing has done pretty well for a 21 year old that can finally legally drink. Bing will probably never be Damon Stoudamire, the man he replaced at PG. However he's poised, patient, and tremendously efficient. He has a 8.7 APG/2.1 TPG rate, to go with his 50.3/78.4/43.3 shooting splits. He still gotta work on that B- defense. But offensively the early returns on Bing are Cha-Ching. Speaking of offense, this brings us to Jamaal Wilkes, who has been instant offense off that Lakers bench. Despite being the teams 6th man he's 2nd on the Lakers in scoring (16.6 PPG). Wilkes has been a 20 PPG scorer and all-star during his career. This year's he's been asked to sacrifice and take on a lesser role. So far he's making the most of it. Lavine, Bing, Wilkes, Chris Webber, Artis Gilmore, Karl Anthony Towns excelling at his new SF position. There's been alot of bright spots for the 14-4 Lakers. But there is one negative. We'll get to it a little later in the article.
Who's Not
There's more than just 1 negative when it comes to the Detroit Pistons. More like 89. That's the amount of points they're averaging this season. 89.4 to be exact which is the worst offense in basketball. I know the Pistons are supposed to be known for defense. That's where the "Deeeeee" from Deeeeee-troit Basketball comes from. And they are staying true to that identity with the #4 rated scoring defense in the league (98.9 oPPG). BUT you gotta be able to put the ball in the basket. Otherwise you're gonna lose alot of games. Which is exactly what the Pistons have been doing this season (3-12 record). They actually started the year 3-2, but since then they have lost 10 games in a row. You know how many times they scored 100 pts in those 10 games? ZERO. Three times they were held below 80 points. Most recently a 108-78 loss vs Philadelphia. They shot 34.8 % from the field and 8.3 % from Three Point Land. Aaron Gordon was 6/21 in that game. Had almost as many fouls (5) as field goal makes (6). It's strange to see them struggle so much on offense, because there is talent. Kevin Garnett was #2 overall pick in the first ever league draft. He went ahead of Moses, Dr J, Larry K, etc. You know what he's doing this season? He's averaging 16 PPG on 37.6 % from the field. No wonder why the Pistons are dead last in offensive field goal percentage (40.7). Their best player is a shooting a sorry-ass 37 %. The previously mentioned A.Gordon isn't much better (41.5). Starting SG Jr Rider is chucking his way to a 41.3 percentage. While former #3 pick Stephon Marbury is looking pretty lackluster. Especially in comparison to the other two guys that went in the top 3 in his draft class (Kobe Bryant, Allen Iverson). I think there was hope Starbury would ignite the teams offense from the PG position. Be that young explosive fast lead guard that would get the Pistons in transition scoring more buckets. But that has not manifested. Instead things have gotten progressively worse in Detroit. And now it looks like they have officially hit rock bottom.
Injury Report
Caldwell Jones (105) - Lakers backup Center Caldwell Jones suffered a gruesome looking injury in the previos sim. He has since missed the last 5 games. Now its officially announced Jones has a torn ACL. He's currently listed as out for 105 days. There are 92 days left in the regular season. Meaning he would be able to return for the 2nd round of the playoffs. But that's a long time away. In the meantime it's Myles Turner's turn. His role will now dramatically increase as the first big man off the bench. He played pretty well in that 99-97 Philly win. With 10 points 12 rebounds 5 blocks. The question is can he do this consistently? Can he be a reliable 25+ MPG player? If not, the Lakers are going have to check who's avaliable on the trade market.
Joe Harris (52) - A bulging disc in Joeys back will keep him out 52 days. It's a tough break for him. He was playing his highest MPG rate (16.4 MPG) since his rookie season. Getting a chance to shine as a bench shooter. He was shooting 47.1 % from threes. Rodney Hood will replace Harris in the Utah Jazz 10 man rotation.
Kim Hughes (39) - The Knicks have been without their top defender since game #4 of the season. He's now missed 18 consecutive games. And he will be out an additional 2 months. Early season trade acquisition Sam Lacey has been playing in his place.
Lonnie Shelton (34) - After a rough 05 season in Philly, Lonnie has been attempting to revive his career in Memphis the last 2 years. That's gonna be hard to do with a broken skull. He's gonna be out 34 days. Prior to the injury be waa averaging 9.0 PPG.
Johnny Davis (18) - Johnny has fallen out of favor in Washington with the new proxy regime. 2 years ago he was a 27 MPG player. This year he's played 21 minutes total for the whole season. So his injury won't hurt Washington. But the broken jaw he suffered will hurt Johnny.
Kevin Duckworth (11) - More good news for the Pistons. Their first round pick Kevin Duckworth is out 11 days with a broken collarbone. In 15.9 MPG he was 2.4 PPG and 5.1 RPG.
Al Skinner (11) - Skinner is out 11 days with broken ribs. He suffered the injury in the last game vs LA. Tyrese Maxey tookover for him and had a nice all around game (8 points, 7 rebounds, 7 assists). Maxey is a battle tested ITP Finals starting PG. But losing Skinner is tough for a team that has already lost 5 of their last 6 games. And now have to play 9 games in 11 days. All without Skinner.
Antonio McDyess (10) - The San Antonio Spurs have been a surprisingly competitive little squad this year. They just beat the Knicks. They had a blowout victory vs the Phoenix Suns. One of the guys responsible for that success is Antonio McDyess (17.9 PPG 11.3 RPG). Dyce has already missed the last 9 games with a dislocated knee injury. He's expected to be out another 10 days.
More News Around The League
- Dyce is one of the reasons the Spurs are playing solid ball. But the MAIN reason is Rex Walters. Rex is averaging 26.0 PPG on 49.2/91.2/39.7 shooting splits. A 26 PPG 50/90/40 that's only making 10mil per for the next 4 years? The Spurs got a pretty sweet asset in Rex. In his last 2 games he dropped 41 in that upset victory vs NYK. Then came back the very next day with another 38 pts (16-22 FG) vs Portland. However, The Blazers won in a 134-124 shootout.
- Shootouts have been the story of the Blazers season. They're #3 in the league in scoring (114.5 PPG). And they have all kinds of firepower with Maledon and Smart on the perimeter. Rasheed And Julius Randle on the interior. They got weapons. Unfortunately, those weapons have been firing blanks the last 2 games. They have suffered nearly a 40 PPG dropoff by averaging 77.0 PPG in back to back losses to the Nets and Clippers.
- To be fair the Nets are #3 in ITP in scoring defense (98.8). While the Clippers are 8th (102.2). Clippers are playing some solid defense this year. Even with the loss of Bill Willoughby. But speaking of Bill, they're gonna need a little more consistent production from the player they acquired for Bill. I'm talking about Anthony Edwards. The antman is averaging 21.4 PPG but on just 43.1 % shooting and 30.4 % from downtown. The SG position in Sacramento was taken over by Kobe. So now Ant is in LA with an opportunity for a fresh start. With an opportunity to become the superstar he was drafted to be. It can still happen. He's only 25 years old. But he gotta start playing better than this.
- You know who else gotta start playing better? Nikola Jokic. I mean isn't it time already? You were drafted #1 overall 5 years ago. You were given a damn near max contract. Kevin Kunnert and Joe Meriweather are gone. It's your time to step up Nikola. And by step up I don't mean 10 PPG and 3 TPG on 41.5 FG/22.7 3PT shooting. You're better than that. And Penny needs you to be better. Both of them.
- As for Penny, he's playing a whole lot better than Jokic. Mr Hardaway has upped his scoring average to 29.0 PPG. See Nikola? That's how you respond after signing a big off-season contract extension. In addition to his increase in his scoring. His efficiency is way up (last year: 43.2 %, this year: 47.3 %). Hes getting to the free throw 6+ times per game after only averaging just over 4 FTA/gm last year. It's beautiful to see a healthy Penny blossom in his prime. Something we didn't get a chance to see enough of in real life due to injury.
- Another thing we didn't get to see enough of in real life was Drazen Petrovic. But in this league he's quickly becoming the man. He's averaging 21.0 PPG 5.2 RPG 4.0 APG on 49.2/84.2/50.0 shooting splits. And he was just named the league's rookie of the month. He keeps playing like this he's gonna be rookie of the year.
- Hal Greer will most likely not win rookie of the year. Greer, a top 5 pick like Petrovic, but unlike Petrovic he has struggled to get on the court for Minnesota. The 18 year old Greer has appeared in 7 of the Wolves 23 games this season logging 9.3 MPG and 3.3 PPG. Maybe his minutes will increase as the Wolves continue to trade off their veteran players.
- One vet they just traded away was John Shumate (22.0 PPG 10.6 RPG), who was sent to Washington in exchange for matching contracts, a future first round pick, and 2nd year man Josh Howard, who was a lottery pick last season. Howard is an intriguing inside/outside scoring project. But it has yet to fully come together for him on the ITP level. Will Minnesota be able to maximize his talents?
- From the Wizards perspective it was an interesting decision to move on from Howard. But they do have two equally good prospects at the wing postions in Rick Paulding (10.8 PPG 5.3 RPG) and Willie Naulls (14.9 MPG 6.7 PPG 3.0 RPG). Looks like they're focused on development of these two. Which is why Howard is gone.
- Speaking of gone. Im gone. Thank you for reading and I'll see you again tommorow.